Tuesday, April 2, 2013

B is for Beach Dickerson, Jack of All Trades


So many Roger Corman alumni, so little time! I could easily write several hundred words on Peter Bogdanovich, who joined the Corman entourage at the time of The Wild Angels. (He started out as Roger’s personal assistant, then a few weeks later ended up directing second unit, en route to making films like The Last Picture Show.) But I’ll save Peter for another day, while I focus on a more obscure Corman colleague: the late Beach Dickerson.

Beach, an early member of the informal Corman Stock Company, had minor roles in several early Corman cheapies. For Attack of the Crab Monster, he also helped pull the piano wires that made the monster move. He got a costume credit on War of the Satellites when Roger demanded he come up with credible astronaut uniforms overnight: “So I went out to the war surplus store.  I could not believe it: I found eight uniforms. At $10 a piece. They had $60 worth of zippers on them.  The only thing was, we could not have over eight people in one scene.”

For the notorious Teenage Caveman, Beach played so many roles that he ended up with three death scenes in the same film. What was it like being directed by Roger Corman? Beach explained to me, “He told you what to do, and by god you’d better do it.” As a young boy in Teenage Caveman, Beach was supposed to feign drowning in a pond at the Los Angeles Arboretum. He was swallowing scummy water and feared throwing up. When an angry Roger accused him of faking and demanded that he drown more effectively, Beach remembers thinking, “You’d better die, Beach. This man is serious.   

More recent Corman alumni mostly remember Beach Dickerson as the jack-of-all-trades who served as an unlicensed building contractor on several Corman projects. One was a nearly 5,000-square-foot house—perched rather precariously on the lip of a  Brentwood canyon—designed by noted architect Cliff May. It featured large expanses of glass, a fifty-foot living room with lofty ceilings, and clean, contemporary lines throughout. Beach called his work on this house “the crowning joy of my life,” but he told me of fierce battles with Roger, who’d get sudden notions about moving a fireplace two feet, or subverting the requirements spelled out in local building codes. Roger’s love for outsmarting city inspectors continued when he commissioned the shoddy little headquarters he still occupies on San Vicente Boulevard in Brentwood. Picture a dilapidated two-story building with a leaking roof, cramped hallways, a steep staircase, and no lobby to speak of. Some of the rear offices were bootlegged onto the roof of neighboring structures, and when I worked for Roger he toyed with further grandiose plans to expand his turf, building codes be damned. 

12 comments:

  1. One of the great unsung heroes of those early Corman movies. I think in that multiple death movie one of his characters is even responsible for another's demise! I didn't realize he also did that unlicensed contractor work! Is that 5000-square-foot house still standing?

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  2. Good question about the house. Roger and Julie moved as their family grew. (That canyon home wasn't a great place for youngsters.) They ended up on an elegant street in Santa Monica, in a venerable 6,500-square-foot Georgian complete with nine bedrooms, a guesthouse, and a swimming pool. Beach was called in to do extensive remodeling, which included a circular loft (complete with observation window) in which the children were to study, and a tube-like shower in the middle of the master suite. Beach describes the look as “Architectural Digest right down the line.” He remembers Roger moving the family in early to hurry the builders along, effectively traumatizing everyone. By the way, the house may sound ritzy, but as always the construction work had to be done on the cheap, so there were always leaks in the oddest places.

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  3. Beach sounds resourceful, but I'm not sure I'd want to live in a project where he'd done the handyman work ...

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  4. I agree completely, Hilary. Though Beach might have done better work on a project where Roger was not calling the shots.

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  5. Visiting from the A to Z Challenge. I'm so glad I found your website. I love film and have spent a little time in Hollywood. I'm looking forward to learning more about your experiences.

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  6. So glad to have you, Jaime. Do come around often -- when I'm not part of this challenge I blog twice a week on movies, moviemaking, and growing up Hollywood-adjacent. Aside from Corman stories, I cover everyone from Clara Bow to Woody Strode to Hollywood's Next Big Thing. (What blog do you write?)

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  7. You're right . . . I hadn't noticed. Thanks for being my Mother Hen, Mr. C!

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  8. That drowning story is a riot. Talk about versatility in the 'one guy, three death scenes' schtick. I've seen that in at least one other movie where one actor -- no speaking lines, mind you -- is utilized for three different roles.

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    1. AS I recall, Beach also played a bear in the film. And I think he was present at his own funeral. In a similar vein, the great Dick Miller -- in his first Roger Corman film -- played an Indian, and also the cowboy who helped ambush the Indian. I love cheap movies!

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  9. What a talented writer! I have enjoyed reading your first two entries. I am stopping by as part of my blog touring homework for the day, and I was pleasantly surprised. I wasn't too fond of the topic at first, but your writing changed my opinion quickly. I'm guessing any book you write will be a success.

    Looking forward to "C." See you tomorrow.

    Dana
    Waiter, drink please!



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    1. It's a pleasure to meet you, Dana. You have a lovely site, and I appreciate your focus on family and baseball. Ah, the memories! I'm dating myself, of course, but I saw Sandy Koufax pitch a no-hitter at the L.A. Coliseum when the Dodgers first came to L.A. And (I blush to mention it) Maury Wills made a pass at me while on tour in Japan, where I was a student. I don't expect to talk about baseball much more in the month of April, though. As far as I can recall, Roger Corman never made a baseball movie.

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